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Aug. 25, 2014 – Today’s Gift from Hazelden

If you don’t have any loyalty to what you are doing, you ought not be doing it. — Tom Harding

We understand loyalty to friends and family members, but does loyalty to an activity imply the same thing? To be loyal to an activity means to stick with it even when we hit the inherent snags. Let’s consider a hobby for instance. Are we so frustrated when we can’t track down a particular stamp or seem unable to complete the 5000 piece puzzle that we consider quitting the activity in disgust? If so, we probably lack the loyalty that Tom alludes to.

Each of us has to consider for ourselves whether or not we value this kind of loyalty when it comes to the “extracurriculars” in our lives. We’re not failures if we decide to drop some hobby for another one. Sometimes we can’t see that some interest doesn’t fit us all that well until we get deep into it. What’s more important is that we remain loyal to our values, whatever they are. When some activity loses its appeal, for any reason, and we continue to stay with it out of shame or embarrassment, we’re not being loyal to that which is most important — ourselves.